How to organise a school fair- Anyone with experience?

[MorocconOil]

Our PTA are holding an early summer fair in the middle of May. It will be the first for many years and we want it to be a success. We are thinking about themes and have come up with maypole dancing and circus skills so far. I can't think of any seasonal celebrations around that time. Can anyone else?

Also I would be grateful to hear about what other PTA's found worked well. We do want to make some money, but having fun is the priority.

Thanks

Hire a fairground ride or two - our school always has oldfashioned swingboats and a bouncy castle. They also have a local ice-cream van come along. I think all of these give a percentage of profits to the school. The Baker Ross catalogue has some good fundraising games - I bought the hook a duck game for DD2's birthday party recently and it will be ideal for a school far. Facepainting is popular at ours, and there is always a barbecue, staffed by volunteer parents as well as the ususal tombolas raffles etc.

Ok here are some suggestions

Deffo get a bouncy castle
Sell hot dogs/coffee/tea/juice/sweets
Hook a duck
Treasure map type game
Guess the teddy's birthday
ask parents to donate bottles of wine/beer/spirits and then do an adult tombola - charge £1/2 a go with a prize every time (believe the stall will be empty in about 2 mins!)
Do a children's tombola (again prize everytime)
Balloon let - personally found they never raised that much money but kid's enjoyed it)
Beat the goalie (recruited some helpers from local football club)

I'll post when I can remember more

Barbeque's a good idea. Like the swingboat idea too. I'll checkout the Baker Ross catalogue.

Thanks Conor. What happens in the event of rain?

Oh and approach local business's for raffle prizes (Free gym session/local pub meal vouchers etc)
Have a first prize of £50 and start selling the ticket atleast a month before the fair. Draw the raffle on the night. Get proper raffle tickets printed.

Use the school hall and some classrooms in the event of rain.

Also see if you can get a local music group to perform.

Like the idea of music group. Do local businesses get fed up of being asked for donations?

In the event of rain everyone crowds into the school hall and looks miserable and takings are halved. But the cake stall sells out. (You HAVE to have a cake stall, it is the law.)
Baker Ross don't do a balloon race thing anymore because of the danger to wildlife - birds will ingest deflate balloons which can kill them.
Throw a custard pie at the teacher is a fave - teachers volunteer to go in the stocks and the 'pie' is a paper plate with shaving foam on.

Thought about a cream tea stall. The Deputy suggested stocks and wet sponges, although not for her!!

You'd be surprised how many business's will donate especially if it's likely to bring further business. Try local beauty salons/hairdressers too. Would steer clear of bigger national companies though.

For soak the teacher we had individual jars with the name of the teacher on it for people to put money in and the jar with the most money at the end was the one who got soaked/gunked.

Wouldn't bother with a white elephant stall people will send in ton of shite that won't sell and you'll be stuck with getting rid of. Stick to fun stall/activities.

Oh like that idea of the jars.

we tap a load of local nurseries for freebe plants and ask parents for plant donations.

Yes you can "rig" them too!!

Speaking of jars we got the kid's to bring a jam jar from home filled with a prize (sweets/crappy party tpy etc) Kid's loved making them and then we used them for a cheap 20p a go tombola.

The best "jar" I was ever sent was a urine sample bottle with a nail in it

At nail in jar.
I really like the plant donations.

Some great ideas.....keep them coming!

We are doing a hamper raffle this year. We are collecting money from each class (parents obviously) and using it to buy stuff for a luxury mediteranean hamper (olives, sundried tomatoes, salad dressing, Marinated peppers etc). We also have lucky cups, (the children take home 2 plastic beakers and have to fill them with goodies (sweets, stickers, erasers etc) then wrap them and bring in. At the fair the child pays to buy tivket and the corresponding cup to that number is theirs. We have a bouncy slide and castle, bbq (we are getting the meat supplied free by a local restaurant), pimms tent, nails/tattos/face painting, a plant stall (plants donated by a local garden centre). We get parents to bake cakes and the teachers run a cafe and sell them along with tea/coffee and soft drinks.

Will post again if I can think of any more.

Oh before you go to a bouncy castle hire place just check with your local council that they don't have one that you can have for free or a small charge.

Connor at sample bottle! Totally agree about white elephant stall - tons of tat that you then have to dispose of afterwards.

I know I kept it on my desk for years - seemed to sum up my job in that school perfectly

Can't you just take excess tat to a local charity shop?
Thanks COV. Don't know how the pimms tent would go down though as the school is very Muslim.

You can mimizan but it's the time it takes to sort through it before the event and you don't want to spend time individually pricing things and if you get older kids to run that stall then you have to rely on them to know what sort of price to charge.

Also

Whack a mole
Coconut shy
Hook a duck
Beat the goalie
Crack the safe (pay to guess the safe combination, whoever does wins the £10 inside)
Book/dvd stall
Decorate a cake
Kiddies cocktail bar
Make a bracelet

Parents appreciate things like make a bracelet/face painting/decorate a cake as it akes a few minutes so they (a) don't have to chase around so much and they aren't spending at such a furious rate.

Some great ideas thanks!

Better get organising.